Men’s Golf Blog
It was a big ask to expect there to be another hole-in-one to report, though I’m sure there have been some near misses. I did, however, hear of an interesting score on a par 5 during the Centenary Putter involving an ‘eagle’ made with the player’s third ball to salvage a 7!
This weekend we play the Spring Meeting, fully subscribed on both days with 130 entrants, and currently 6-7 players waiting hopefully in reserve. Please note the usual reminder to please withdraw in good time if you are unable to play and inform Tristan or Louis. Also, if on the day you find you are unable to play, please notify the Club as soon as possible and also notify your playing partners. Players not making their tee time without prior notice will receive a letter from the Captain advising they will not be permitted to enter the next signup competition, which is the Founder’s Cup Medal on 5th June.
An amazing 142 players have entered the Four Ball Better Ball Knockout this year, plus we have 72 players in the Seniors Four Ball Better Ball Knockout. Please, everyone, make sure you are familiar with the competition rules, and do your very best to get your matches arranged and completed by the required play-by dates. Above all, enjoy your matches in perhaps the truest form of golf; matchplay.
As we adjust to the new World Handicap System I would encourage everyone to submit frequent ‘General Play Scores’, or what we used to refer to as a ‘qualifying round’ or ‘supplementary score’. Previously there were some restrictions on how many supplementary scores you could submit, but now every round, or 9 holes, can be submitted. How many times have you played really well in an unrecorded friendly round and wished it had counted? Count them all and you will capture the good ones! Remember we are always working on our best eight scores from the last 20 recorded.
You can do a general play score by signing up before your round at the terminal in the Sports Shop, and record your score manually, or using the IG App with a photo of the signed scorecard. However, having tested it away, and at Roehampton Club, I would encourage you to use the England Golf App (MyEG) for general play scores. https://www.englandgolf.org/handicapping/whs-app/
For this you do not need a paper scorecard or the terminal in the shop. You record everything on your smartphone plus you can keep a record of your playing partner’s score, or scores, for cross-checking. You should activate your intention to record a score on the App when starting your round. (Do not think you can leave this until the end of your round, as it won’t allow a score to be submitted for two hours after being activated, and it won’t work if you’ve left the course!) The App is easy to use and, I really think, less fiddly than a scorecard and pencil.
At the end of your round, having checked your score with your marker, you finalise and sign for it on your phone screen, and indicate which player is to attest to the correctness of your score. A message will be sent and appear on the App on their phone. When they attest it, the score is then live on England Golf and your handicap index will immediately update if necessary. By the next morning, the updated handicap index will also show on IntelligentGolf. It is very easy and more efficient than handing in scorecards at Club Reception.
Also note that you can easily record general play scores at other courses, all the course data is in the App, plus you can have a player from another Club attest your score, as all the data is searchable. When I played away during last week we had finalised our scores and had our handicap indexes updated in <5 minutes after stepping off the 18th green; making us ‘citizens of the golfing world’ in a way!
I know pitchmarks are not so easy to locate on our greens at the moment, but somehow I managed to locate quite a few this past weekend, so try harder people, please …
Warmer weather would be nice, not least when trying to enjoy a post-golf beer on the terrace, but we couldn’t do this just a few weeks ago, so enjoy your golf everyone!
Gerry Dennigan | Men’s Golf Captain